As someone who considers themselves well traveled, the talk unexpectedly led by Andrew Mertha, who is a government professor, made me realize how little I knew about the history of foreign countries. Almost all of our history lessons from K-12 are told through the eyes of the United States or Europe and the British Empire, and so we end up learning little about the history of foreign countries, and more about their effect on us.

And so it was very interesting to hear of Andrew Mertha’s talk on the history of Cambodia, his research on the relations between China and Cambodia, and China’s influence on Cambodia.

One idea that really caught me by surprise was the fact that while China is perceived as potentially world dominating and insanely organized by foreign countries, internally, Chinese government and policies are incredibly disorganized.

Another story that was really cool to hear of was how Professor Mertha tried to get information about Chinese influence in Cambodia unsuccessfully, but was able to find high security documents on Chinese influence in Cambodia in China almost out in the open.

This demonstrates the disorganization in Chinese government and makes me wonder how high security level information is stored in foreign countries, and how it is distributed.

All in all, I’m glad I got introduced to the history of Cambodia. It made me curious about Cambodian history and now I am hoping to read up more on foreign history over the summer.